Be Persistent With Customer Service
by amykhar - Written: Jul 26 '01 (Updated Jul 27 '01)
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The Bottom Line
Barnes and Noble tends to make mistakes on orders, but if you are persistent, customer service will make good.
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I have a love-hate relationship with BarnesandNoble.com. Usually I love them because they have a wide variety of books, plenty of available online coupons, and reasonable prices. However, a good percentage of the time, Barnes and Noble messes up my order, and the hate side of our relationship kicks in. However, I have learned that persistence pays off, and Barnes and Noble customer service usually makes up for their mistakes.
I started using Barnes and Noble around October 1999. I immediately fell in love with buying books online. My husband would say that my love was more like an obsession. One of the drawbacks to buying books online is that I tend to be very impulsive and overspend. Consequently, Barnes and Noble has gotten quite a bit of money from me.
Unlike Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble tends to be more generous with their online coupons. Consequently, I often avoided pesky shipping charges that make buying online less than attractive.
Barnes and Noble also offers a toll free customer support number. Unfortunately, I need to use that customer support phone number quite frequently because of problems with my orders.
Another unfortunate fact is that the customer service workers aren’t always the brightest people that I have ever dealt with. Often, I am forced to bicker with them for a while before they correct their mistake. I stick with them because they always do correct those mistakes eventually, and usually reward me for my trouble.
Usually, the problem that I face with Barnes and Noble is that they forget to ship my order. One memorable occasion went something like this:
Me: Four weeks ago, I ordered xxxx. The site said that it would ship in 2-3 weeks, but you have not shipped it yet.
Customer Service (CS): I see here that you selected 6 day shipping. In addition, due to the holiday rush, UPS may be a bit delayed in getting that package to you.
Me: No, I am sorry; you don’t understand. UPS isn’t delayed, the order status states that you haven’t shipped it yet. What’s more, the site now says that you have the item in stock and that it ships in 24 hours. To add insult to injury, it’s now cheaper too.
CS: Yes, yes. I am sorry, but UPS is having problems getting the orders delivered on time.
Me: Noooo, you still don’t understand. It can’t be UPS’s fault, because YOU HAVEN’T SHIPPED IT YET.
CS: I see that you selected 6 day shipping. It could take… Oh! I see your point now. Let me check. (pause and keyboard clicking). Your’re right! Somehow the order didn’t get shipped. We are having computer problems. Let me cancel your original order and get one shipped out to you right away. For your trouble, I am going to credit you the price of the book.
Me: Thank you very much.
In that instance, I received a $25 book and only paid shipping and handling charges. Other times, Barnes and Noble credited me with the shipping charges instead.
Another incident that shows how willing they are to go the extra mile happened that same Christmas season. I had received a free $25 webcertificate and used it to buy a Barnes and Noble gift certificate for my husband’s stocking. I failed to read the fine print, and was shipped a gift certificate that was only good for the store, not the web site.
Once again, I called customer service to see about exchanging the store certificate for an online one because we don’t have a Barnes and Noble in our area. This time, negotiations took several days because the customer service people didn’t know what to do.
Finally, one of them told me to make my purchase and then call him right back and he would credit me the $25. I did so, and he removed the $25 from my bill. Then, he told me to keep the gift certificate in case I was ever near a Barnes and Noble store.
Usually, customer service tends to argue. The key is to be persistent and friendly. They never fail to make good in the end. I usually shop at Amazon now because they are one of my web site’s sponsors. However, I have found that shopping at Barnes and Noble is usually a rewarding experience.
Recommended:
Yes
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